Missing ship may have secret cargo

Originally posted by smurfy
reply to post by Greenblaz

 

That is a possiblity,according to the owner/s the ship had 22 days sailing before refuelling.I'm taking that as 22 days from the 24th July,but it could well from the time it left port on the 23rd July in which case it should be out of puff now, unless of course it stopped somewhere in between.
I would have thought though, that the Cape Verde coastguards would know if the ship was drifting or sailing, but there's no comment on that, other than they would decide what do to if the ship entered their waters.It could be abandoned, but there's not enough info yet.

Let's replay this here.

MOSCOW, Aug. 14 Itar-Tass -- The missing vessel Arctic Sea, with a Russian crew on board, had enough fuel and food to support its operation until September, the ship's operator said on Friday, as suspicions grow that it may have been hijacked.

The ship left port in Finland with a supply of food for 45 days and fuel for 40 days, Ivan Boiko, deputy director of the Arkhangelsk-based company Solchart Arkhangelsk.

There should be no problems with drinking water because there was a water-desalination plant on board, he added.

[edit on 14-8-2009 by northwoods]

If someone could get a map that shows the oceans currents, you could very easly detect wear it could be going by drifting from Cape Verde. That is, IF it's out of gas.

Originally posted by getreadyalready
Don't get me wrong, Russia's search appears to be heroic, but I don't believe they are taking such an active stance just for the crew! I have never heard of them doing anything like this before, and do go missing from time to time. Trucks get hijacked, citizens get kidnapped and robbed. I have never seen this type of response from anybody!

What Russian assets were actually actively involved in this heroic effort and where are they looking. I would not have thought Russian warships would be able to search in any territorial waters.

Besides, the ship has been found. All a misunderstanding, a broken radio or a "lost in translation". I would still like to know what the Russians deployed, if anything.

Regards

I think that media is now like one big question mark since no confirmed information about Arctic Sea not available.

BRUSSELS, August 14 (Itar-Tass) -- Russia and NATO keep permanent contact in the Arctic Sea ship situation, Russian Permanent Representative to NATO Dmitry Rogozin told Itar-Tass on Friday.

He reaffirmed the earlier statement of a NATO representative to that effect.

The NATO representative and Rogozin refused to go into details and to comment on the exact location of the dry cargo ship.

Remarkable lot of international attention this one tiny Cargo vessel gets anyway. For parties involved in search and possible hijack this is become one nice political game. Chess! Your move.

[edit on 14-8-2009 by northwoods]

Auts. "Russia says Cape Verde ship sighting untrue

Reports that a missing merchant ship had turned up in the Atlantic Ocean off the Cape Verde islands have proven untrue, Russia's RIA agency quoted Moscow's envoy to the country as saying on Friday.

"The ship was later recorded on a ship tracking system off the northern French port of Brest on July 30 and it was apparently spotted afterwards by a Portuguese patrol plane.

It then vanished - having turned off its tracking device after leaving British waters.

The Arctic Sea was due to dock in Algeria on August 4 to deliver its cargo of timber worth £1.1m.

Now over a week late, Finnish wood supplier Rets Timber, whose load is on the vessel, says it has no idea where the ship has headed.

While the Maltese authorities maintain that the Arctic Sea has not approached the Straits of Gibraltar, the makers of its tracking device believe it is likely to have docked by now.

"We know based on the engines on board the ship and their average fuel consumption how long it would be able to steam for before it would have to stop to pick up bunkers of fuel," said Ron Crean of AIS Live.

"That is about 22 days."

All ports have been put on alert and there is now an international search for the Arctic Sea and her crew"

Above is from August 12th, it's interesting also that this report seems to indicate that the tracker was switched on again at sometime after the 30th July. The report above is not the only one I have seen with similar estimates, but i'll have a look back.

reply to post by paraphi


The Russian Navy has dispatched five warships from its Black Sea fleet, including two nuclear submarines (akula class) and the guided-missile frigate Ladny, in what the Russian media describes as a major search operation.

Source

reply to post by smurfy

MAX ZORIN Lives!!!

Remember the 1985 Bond flick "A View To A Kill" ? No, well if you don't I'll refresh your memory later. For now, lets think about sailing time / distances.

July 29th contact in Dover Strait - Aug 14th maybe 520mi north of Cape Verde.

That is roughly 1,900 nm, if they made no stops thats a VERY slow avg speed of around 5kts. But if they steamed at a more reasonable 15kts they would cover that distance in about 3 days. So what were they doing the other 11 days?

Think... think... what do you pass right by on this course? LOOK AT A MAP!!!

Yes the Canary Islands. They could have reached the area off the Canary Islands around Aug 6th. Dropped anchor and taken care of "business" until Aug 12th then headed for Cape Verde.

That gives them five to six days to complete their "mission". "What mission?"
you ask... remember that 1985 Bond flick?

The fictional character planned on creating an earthquake in the San Andreas fault in California with explosives.

Now you are familiar with the possible earthquake / tsunami potential from the Canary Islands, right? No? Then check out this link...Wave of Destruction

Important points to consider:
1. Port of departure, Kaliningrad, is THE MOST CONCENTRATED Russian military zone in the world,( think lots and lots of weapons, of all types, in this area ).

2. Boat was two weeks in shipyard before leaving on this trip,( what was being done? routine overhaul? new paint job on bottom? )

3. Russian Navy has scrambled after it, but was very late to the "party",( they entered the Atlantic on Aug 11th Missing Cargo Ship

4. Leaders of US are off the east coast,( Obama in west, Clinton touring Africa, Mc Cain in Iraq ).

If I was on the east coast of US I would take a trip inland for awhile.

p.s. The Prez plans on vacationing in MV at the end of the month...

Originally posted by getreadyalready
1. Russia is being over-agressive in their search.

I have never seen this type of response from anybody!

Come here

Indian navy destroys 'pirate ship'

Last month, US navy snipers on a destroyer shot dead three Somali pirates in a lifeboat and rescued an American sea captain who had been taken hostage

Link

China navy set for Somalia mission

Somali pirates free Spanish boat for ransom

A Dubai-flagged ship was rescued by Somali troops on Tuesday and French commandos earlier this month swooped on pirates who had hijacked a luxury yacht.

Spain had sent a navy frigate, the Mendez Nunez, to the area and it was now escorting the fishing boat to safety

Link

22/04/2009 - Somali Pirates

The U.S. Navy, various European Union Navies, and even South Korea and Japan have sent military vessels to the disputed region. The EU's ``Operation Atalanta'' has currently deployed five frigates from France, Germany, Italy, and Spain. Results have paid off.

You see ?

What do you want the US to do openly ? It's in Europe and a Russian ship.
What do you want the UK to do ? The ship is far now. There is nothing suspicious here.
What is suspicious is a cargo ship attacked, now it's claimed twice, in European waters highly surveilled, with no one investigating and nothing happening until two full weeks after it occured and finally the ship is lost !

Rumors of nukes are extremely high in the US, not as much outside the US I think. If there is any nuke material in the ship which I don't believe, I don't find it odd the criminals don't take credit. They'd better wait until it's ready to use, then make threats.
It would be odd for an organisation to deny until they are not accused and no one has been accused until now.
What could be secretly transported in the ship is wild speculation anyway.

Yes, the Russians look like something happened and took them by surprise. If it's true and it is not all staged and faked then they didn't know about the ship until a few days ago.

reply to post by TOSFORUS
If you look back, I already mentioned missing sailing time.It is interesting you mention the Canaries though, since the Russian Mafia has taken over the south of the island of Tenerife,(it's not helping their tourism either) but what to unload? drugs would be the most likely, maybe a bomb for the Basques, they're busy at the moment and extending from the mainland.

Originally posted by smurfy
"The ship was later recorded on a ship tracking system off the northern French port of Brest on July 30 and it was apparently spotted afterwards by a Portuguese patrol plane.

It then vanished - having turned off its tracking device after leaving British waters.

No. When the ship was recorded by the French it had already left the British waters. So its tracking device was not turned off.
The ship was tracked all the way around Brittany, it's a busy route with many hazards. It's not plausible they have lost track of it in this zone near the coast. If the tracking system was turned off at some point, the navigation centre would have investigated about it, it's one of their duty to rescue ships.

The situation is dramatic (no further details) and NATO and Russia are in permanent contact. They won't reveal the exact location of the ship. Updates posted here.

urbansurvival.com has a link stating there may be 3 nukes on board('') I read about an hour ago the Russian gov denies the sited ship is theirs, and is still missing, but the latest "reports" are that it has been found?? ODD...

urbansurvival.com has a link stating there may be 3 nukes on board('') I read about an hour ago the Russian gov denies the sited ship is theirs, and is still missing, but the latest "reports" are that it has been found?? ODD...

reply to post by Manouche
That was part of the REPORT of which I quoted, but It is correct in saying that the device was turned off after leaving British waters...in other words, it was ON in British waters, it does not say when it was actually turned off. Also other sources at the time said that the British contact was by radio and did not mention the tracker in regard to the British contact, so maybe both. Ron Crean is of AIS Live,(the tracker) mentioned in that report. Latest news is that the ship at Cape Verde is not the Arctic Sea...BBC news.



[edit on 14-8-2009 by smurfy]

reply to post by northwoods


It was not confirmed by the French Defense Ministry but the Sirpa Mer which is the French Navy... ahem PR department.

Here is an article based on a AFP news. All this information is now denied but the article gives names, some names. It's a pity it's a french-language newsmedia.

Link

"The Arctic Sea is 740 km from one of Cape Verde islands so at the moment outside Cape Verde waters according to an anonymous military source in the Cape Verde Coast Guards"

"The archipelago coast surveillance department is in contact with international organisations and agencies informing them anytime of the progress of the ship."

"In the afternoon, Cape Verde Defense General Director, Pedro Reis said to press agency Lusa the ship was located 400 miles north of Sao Vicente, out of the exclusive economic zone of Cape Verde."

"In Paris, Capitaine de Frégate Jérôme Baroé (equivalent to Commander I think) from Sirpa Mer confirmed AFP the position of the ship and that a Portuguese aircraft had flown over it."

But the Portuguese remain silent without denying the information. "Portuguese Air Force is not acting on his own in this case." declared to AFP one of their spokesman in Lisbonne. (Spokesman for who ?)

"When the ship enter our territory, we will decide, in cooperation with our partners, the actions to undertake" indicated the Cape Verde military source implying a boarding could be considered."

edit : you're right smurfy, I have misunderstood it !



[edit on 14-8-2009 by Manouche]

What I find interesting is why in an area not known for piracy was this ship targeted by two different groups of "pirates" when all it is carrying is timber? Someone must have tipped either organized crime individuals or certain intelligence agencies. I think that the two groups of pirates were most likely members of some countries intelligence agency.

They got word about the true contents of the ship and went abroad to either steal, take a look to confirm, disable or whatever. Something is definitely not right about this situation, especially now that we know the ship is way off coarse. I'm sure as soon as the Russians get to the ship everything will be covered up and the truth probably won't come out.

reply to post by Rockstar1102


Well, unless the Russian surface ships have wide surface search capabilities then it's not going to really help.

Regards

reply to post by Hellmutt
Thanks for the links Hellmutt, there are a lot. Have you any info as to who the Captain of The Arctic Sea is, I have looked at a seamans forum, and one reply was from a pilot, (I think) who dealt with this ship a couple of years ago and who says that the Captains's name at that time was Medvedev!! that's one for the conspiracy files...(his words).

i read the whole thread and at the end i seemed to ask myself the question:

if you know the ship is loaded with nukes, and you know the location and you are either russia, sweden, uk, france, portugal or cap verde then why not board or destroy it, if russia knew it was loaded why wait so long before setting after it, but then it struck me, it is very hard to stop a ship with nukes, you dont really wanna let the pirates blow up both you the boarding party and the whole area would you.

i was also thinking the ship could be emptied by now, the cargo transferred to small highspeed boats or subsurface vessels and just be a scape (goat) until finally boarded